i like to think about dave and dirk eventually becoming quietly very touchy and affectionate with each other because they both grew up extremely contact-starved, dave by a hyper-masculine upbringing that taught that stoicism is “cool” and that boys don’t need shit like hugs and physical affection, and dirk by being isolated in the middle of a fucking ocean. with the initial awkwardness out of the way and various issues talked through and shit they can just be bros who care about each other a lot and just like lean into each other all the time and sometimes hug if they need it and sometimes after a hard day of drawing and goofing off just flop down together and take a nap all tangled together.

Hi Aunt Scripty! I have a question about a stabbing. So my character gets stabbed in the abdomen (ideally not fatal -- like in Crimson Peak) and she's patched up almost right away, but it might not be the best job due to it being done kind of unprofessionally (no anesthetic, minimal sanitation, and a big bandaid). What I'm wondering is if she'd be able to move around (hobbling) after and how would the healing process go after proper treatment once the situation is resolved. Thank you!

Stabs in the abdomen almost always have the chance to be fatal from one cause or another. Even if the major arteries (aorta, inferior/superior mesenteric) have been spared, some organs bleed massively when poked, and what doesn’t bleed, oozes poop and causes infection in the abdomen (peritonitis).

Sometimes people get lucky and a solid organ will get nicked but won’t bleed fatally, and will stop bleeding on its own. The solid organs are one like the spleen, pancreas, liver, and, in the side/towards the back, the kidneys.

Hollow organs are a different story, because they contain poop, and when poop leaves the bowels, that’s an insane risk for infection and sepsis. This is the kind of thing where maybe it’s better to just have the stab aim a little high, under the ribs.

The patching-up sounds like a Grade-A way to get an infection, too.

I would say put the stab shallow, high right of the abdomen, in the liver. It’s gonna suck for a while, but it will be survivable.

NOW THEN, as to your ACTUAL QUESTION. First off, hobbling is gonna hurt. To get to the organs, you have to go through fat and muscle, and the core is involved in almost every activity we do, including hobbling. I would go with hobbling relatively immediately (as long as she’s not bleeding to death), but extremely weak and very tired.

Once she gets actual care, her healing is going to depend on the injury and whether or not she’s caught a bad infection. If you’re being realistic, I would say a 3-day admission at the least (to watch for fever and monitoring blood values for bleeding, and to do actual closure of the wound), followed by 2 weeks to 2 months of minimal activity (and that’s the short list!). Basically the rule is, anything that could cause her to break a sweat could also cause her liver to re-tear the injury. This is especially good if you want her to collapse again later on, which can be dramatically useful!

If that happens, she’ll probably get sharp pain in her shoulder (yes, her shoulder, yes, I know where the liver is; referred pain is A Thing™ in abdominal injuries). She’ll feel faint, she’ll feel dizzy, and she may feel a tearing in her abdomen.

The plan was to fit the PCs into a city where the acts of creation and manufacture have magical significance, and the mages are looking to find its new focus decades after the textile industry - home of fate-weaving on an industrial scale - crashed.

It quickly became apparent that the group - two Guardians, two Arrows, and a curious Free Councillor - would make a fantastic things-that-go-bump-in-the-night squad, investigating disappearances and called into action by the rest of the Consilium when danger outweighs Magely curiosity.

The players and their characters are:

Tienelle as Dyrnwyn. Police officer, Obrimos of the Adamantine Arrow, and responsible adult - he’s wearing the official hat as a Sentinel of the Consilium, and when the Sleeper authorities stumble on something they can’t handle, he’s got a good chance of noticing. He’s a magical law-enforcer, denying unlawful uses of power with Prime and tracking (and in future confining) suspects with Space. His Awakening left his police-issue truncheon filled with his Aetheric authority - it can become a sword of flame that cuts away magic from the world.

@harkonenbade as Trip. Free Council Acanthus, mind-altering substance mage, and formerly a member of the University of Leeds Unnatural Philosophy Society (the university cabal). They’re here for the mysteries and the investigation, and their Sleeper social circles - Burners, hippies and the like - are a little more likely to talk about the things that go bump in the darkness than most.

Bluebottle as Cú Chulainn (which may well be being spelled differently). Adamantine Arrow Acanthus, estranged from most of his family after following hints left in his great-grandfather’s diaries to find Awakening. Charming, quick-witted and handy with his fists, he’s ready for anything - but what’s the Destiny hanging over him, and what did his ancestor leave behind?

Biscuits as Sparrow, the first of our two Moros Guardians of the Veil. She’s as chirpy as her Shadow Name would suggest - a morgue worker by day or night, depending on shift pattern, and the centre of a social-media Labyrinth. But she’s also a psychompomp - when the dead cling to the world, she finds out why and helps them find their rest, whether to protect the Veil from poltergeist activity or from whatever night-born horror killed them.

veryreverie as Wolf, the other Moros Guardian. Formerly a private investigator, he’s turned monster-hunter. Between his contacts in the Sleeper world, his investigative skills, and a dash of Time magic, he tracks down the things that go bump and quiets them down.

On paper, the Cabal is called Alkahest, the universal solvent beloved of alchemists; together they’ll solve anything. In practice names like “the Scooby Gang” might be more common among themselves…

He was mumbling the directions to himself, tattooed arms covered with flour as he stretched the pizza dough onto pans. “Wait, hey–” He heard the footsteps come and go, Larson calling out for the person who had ducked out on him before they even knew what he was doing. “If you get that cheese for me then there’s one in it for you. Help a guy out here.”

PART 5 | MATCH TWO: HUFFLEPUFF VS. RAVENCLAW

Suddenly hail started to pelt from the sky, signalling the beginning of freezing rain. Player visibility goes down by 60%.

M: MERLIN’S BEARD! What’s happening?D: I CAN’T SEEM TO SEE A SINGLE THING. ( conjures a quick spell to clear up their view of the game as well as shielding themselves from the storm )M: I hope the players would be able to go through with the game… USE YOUR WANDS NOW! CONJURE AN UMBRELLA OR SOMETHING! REMEMBER, YOU ARE ALL WITCHES AND WIZARDSD: Mia – they know, settle please! For the love of Merlin!

HUFFLEPUFF’s keeper Vernon Chwe caught the quaffle near the ground and threw it back into play, narrowly missing his intended target; Lee Minhyuk.

M: Vernon…. I know you’re better than this… He looks really cute flying across the posts like that but still…D: Now is not the time for scolding, Mia! They are trying their best!M: BUT I KNOW HE COULD DO BETTER!

instead the quaffle landed three meters to his left. Thankfully Gabriella Jung flew quickly in and caught the quaffle.

D: GABRIELLA JUNG EVERYONE! SHE’S TRULY, FLYING AND SOARING. THERE’S NOT A STAR IN HEAVEN THAT SHE TRULY CANNOT REACH.M: IS THIS THE START OF SOMETHING NEW FOR HUFFLEPUFF DEMITRIUS?D: EXACTLY WHAT WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

HUFFLEPUFF’s Gabriella Jung passed to captain; Lucille Choi, who sprinted across the field, not passing to any of her teammates and performed a fake throw backwards which she caught herself before scoring a miraculous goal just passing through RAVENCLAW’s keeper Kris Wu’s fingers.

( RAVENCLAW 20 : 30 HUFFLEPUFF )

M: MY BLOODY BEST FRIEND IS SO BLOODY IMPRESSIVE! DID YOU SEE THAT FAKE BACKTHROW? THAT IS ART LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TRUE ART!D: AMAZING! HUFFLEPUFF BREAKING THE TIE. SUFFERING THROUGH THE COLD AND THE STORM. AMAZING. AMAZING WORK ETHIC. I’M SO –M: THAT’S TEN POINTS ADVANTAGE TO HUFFLEPUFF!

Diving sharply to catch the quaffle, RAVENCLAW’s keeper Kris Wu took possession of the quaffle and used the back end of his broom to shoot it across the field, perfectly caught by RAVENCLAW’s Roseanne Park halfway across the field.

M: Right… say what you want about these ravens, but that play was perfectly executed.D: Everything is so calculated with these Ravens. But so so smart and I’m… impressed.M: Great maneuver even in this level of visibility…

However, HUFFLEPUFF’s Lee Jihoon swung a powerful bludger towards RAVENCLAW’s Roseanne Park only to have the bludger suddenly turn powerfully towards the direction of one of the spectator stands– pummelling powerfully to an audience member’s torso.

I haven't been able to find a useful answer to this on google myself, maybe you know? Does cocaine affect bleeding? From what I've read cocaine increases heart rate but also constricts blood vessels, so would someone bleed out faster or slower? Or would it probably not do anything noticeable at all? (and just so you know I'm talking flesh wound, not nicked artery or anything) Thank you!

Hey there! First off, big disclaimer: don’t do coke. Just don’t. It will fuck you up.

NEXT! Here’s the story with coke and bleeding. It does one thing systemically, and another thing when applied to a wound.

Systemically, coke ups heart rate, causes slight vasoconstriction, but that raises blood pressure. More pressure generally means more bleeding. So someone who’s been injured may bleed more so than their non-cocaine-laden counterparts.

However, when applied directly to a wound, cocaine acts like lidocaine (see the -caine?) or adrenaline, and causes local vasoconstriction, which can cause a wound to stop bleeding more quickly. Soaking a piece of gauze in saline and cocaine might work well to stop bleeding. Cocaine is even used in ERs (including peds ERs) to stop severe nosebleeds. (Chronic cocaine use can cause severe nosebleeds,so there’s that.) I’ve never seen it used for other kinds of bleeding, though.

But it’s a very dose-dependent thing. Too much and you’ll cause the same systemic effects. Which, hey, if you’re in the mood to get high….?